British biogas plant producing energy from sewage

As you can see in the picture above, the landscape of Didcot, Oxfordshire is dominated by cooling towers for coal and oil-fed power stations. Not the cleanest of energy sources, but, as of today, Didcot is contributing to greener energy generation in Great Britain as the home of the country’s first biomethane station that produces gas from sewage.

A joint project between Thames Water, British Gas and Scotia Gas Networks, the gas production largely uses facilities already in place. Didcot is home to a sewage works that processes wastes for some of Thames Water’s 14 million customers; anaerobic digestion technology was added to the plant to extract biogas from sludge coming into the plant.

The project partners got this system up and running quickly — six months — so assuming it works well, this could signal a radical change in energy production in Great Britain… and a model for the rest of world.

Know of other large-scale sewage gas operations in the works? Let us know about them…